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Mercer officials hold off on Act 44 funds
The commissioners aren’t going to touch the money for now.
MERCER, Pa. — It’s not often that Mercer County commissioners are leery about accepting money from the state.
After all, past commissioners have often complained the state is generally slow to pay the county money it owes and notorious for passing laws and then forcing the county to come up with the money to comply with them.
But Wednesday, commissioners indicated they are so uneasy about accepting the first distribution of funds from Pennsylvania Act 44 that they will put the money in an escrow account and not touch it until it is decided whether the state will actually proceed with turning Interstate 80 into a toll road.
Act 44 was signed into law in July 2007. It allows the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission to lease I-80 from Pennsylvania Department of Transportation and implement a tolling system. Such a system is estimated to be able to generate $2.3 million annually for the state’s bridge and highway maintenance.
Commissioners received a letter from PennDOT informing them the first distribution of funds from Act 44 amounts to $177,512, which will be released to the county upon the commissioners’ signature.
The money can be used for construction, reconstruction, maintenance and repair of county bridges.
The problem is the money for the bridge repairs is supposed to come from the I-80 tolls, but federal authorities are reviewing the plan to make I-80 a toll roll and are not certain to approve it.
In the meantime, the disbursements are being made, commissioners said, from a $55 million bond issue taken out by the turnpike commission in anticipation of the Act 44 funds.
Commissioners are wondering if they might be required to reimburse the state for the money if they spend it and the tolling plan falls through. So they decided to sign and accept the money but not spend it.
Commissioner Kenneth Ammann added that commissioners should include with their acceptance, a letter to PennDOT saying they accept the funding but do not agree in principle with the tolling of I-80. “Rather than lose it, we would accept it,” agreed Commissioner John Lechner. “If tolling goes through despite the protests, we would be out the money if we have not accepted it.”
The commissioners have formally opposed the tolling because they fear it will harm county businesses by encouraging traffic to avoid the toll road.
Gerald Munley, chief of the financial consulting division of the bureau of municipal services and listed in the PennDOT letter as the contact for any questions about the allocation, could not be reached. A recording indicated his voice mail in box was full and could not accept any more messages.